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JANUAEY 18, 1881, 



BY 



JOHN L. WITHROW, D. D., 



Pauk Stueet Church, Boston. 



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JANUARY 18, 1881. 



BT 



JOHN L WITHROW, D. D., 

?-/' j (j- Park Street CnuRcn, Boston. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



^WASHINGTON CITT; 
POLONIZATION ^UILDING, 45 J'eNNSYLYANIA /iVENUK 

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KosiiAL School Steam Pbess, •■|i- 
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ADDRESS. 



• 



Things sound as if the morning hour for Africa must have struck. 
The last of the six continents to claim the attention of the world, who 
can be sure she may not yet, as the last child of Jesse, be appointed by 
Providence to a place of principal eminence? Her calling is at a pro- 
pitious period of human history. Though denominated the dark cont- 
nent, her set time strikes in the high day of universal light, when the 
prophecy is being fulfilled : " the darkness shall flee away." Other con- 
tinents have been carved and shaped into the similitudes of palaces for 
the people with clumsy and cruel weapons of civilization: with dull 
and inadequate agencies for education and under bigoted and blunder- 
ing leadership in religion. 

Would the governments of Darius and Alexander have perished if 
knowledge had been diHused so that politics had been understood by 
the people as well as by the archon ; and religion by the worshipner 
as well as by the priest? 

Might not Rome have still been stable on her seven hills of Empire 
had she but felt the thrill of disenthraUing individualism, which came 
forth in convulsions at the close of the eighteenth century, but is the 
normal life of the nineteenth? 

Do the agonizing nations of Northern Europe now indicate anything 
more clearly than this, that our era means to end its work by cuttincrthe 
canch from the fetter, and flinging into the black abyss of'the 
forever the last shackle of human bondage? Because the world moves 
mankind has come much nearer than ever to know how deep were the 
words of the Lord : "The son of man came to seek and save that which 
was lost." Naturalism provides a physician for the whole; Biblical 
civilization, for them that are sick. 

Old times and nations m not imitate your parental care and provide 
first for the impotent, ignorant and poor. They debated and declared 
the div.nc right of Kings; the lofty claims of feudal lords; and the in- 
hcrent eminence assured by color of blood, independent of character 
Ancestral times were reluctant to learn that a State cannot imitate an 
acrobat and stand upon its head. Later times have learned it And 
now, whither have the absolute monarchies of earth departed? How 
limited arc the limits of momarchies that yet remain? And how their 
constantly shrinking prerogatives remind us of the cage of storv 
Bu.lt so that the turn of crank each morning made its sides close 
and shutout ray after ray of day, until at last the inmate, was chr.shed ' 
by Its irou embrace. And he who designed and built it suffered death 
by It. So those old Constitutions and States, which potentates composed 



io press the life out of the common people, for the pleasure and profit 
of fortune's favorites, are closing on their builders, as the shrinking cage; 
until there is hardly a royal house that does not suffer a continual ache 
of apprehension for the future of crowned heads. Up to this pro- 
pitious present where -willwe find a continent oi; country whose begin- 
nings of civilization were not hampered by the restrictions of popular 
riglits? This accounts for empires perishing, and for the slow pro- 
gress made by such as survive. 

Consider the condition of England at the hour of the Norman con- 
quest, and compare her with Great Britain now ; and how very slowly she 
has moved during those eight centuries! England would not have been 
so long in rising from the bogs and barbarism of her beginning to be- 
come, as she is, the first of Christian Kingdoms, if Alfred the Great liad 
begun his work at the same time that you planted a Colony on the shores 
of Africa! 

But three and three quarter centuries have a little more than elapsed 
since white men commenced to fashion our national fabric from the 
American forests. Only two hundred and sixty Decembers have sheet- 
ed Plymouth Rock with ice since the pious and intrepid Puritans sowed 
the seeds of republican liberty along the New England coast. But a 
hundred and four times, the fourth of July's rejoicings have reverberated 
over our heads as an independent people. For ninety and two years 
only wc have slept under the canopy of a national Constitution. And 
behold how much further we have advanced in less than four centuries, 
than England did in six. 

And yet our beginnings were under heavy disabilities. What slug- 
gish shipss ailed the seas? What tardy communications circulated ideas? 
What loitering messengers imparted intelligence? How narrow were 
the notions of natural laws! Uow dull was the appetite for progress in 
art! Science was an embryo. Religion largely a superstition. Com- 
merce a name. Civilization rude. Culture crude. International comi- 
ty unknown. China was a sealed munition ; Japan a myth ; England an 
enemy and all Europe a fiercely contested battlefield. Therefore, there 
is no other ground of national boasting so broad and safe as this; that 
•we have done as well as we have, considering the hindrances at the outset. 

During these dolorous ages Africa, as a diamond in the mine, has 
been hid in the dark waiting for the digger, the lapidary and the day 
when she may dazzle and decorate the world. Her time arrives when the 
noise of war is scarcely heard under the sun; when Kings and Captains 
have loosed their clutch of spears and swords to take up plows and pens; 
when for Councils of War wc select Commissions of arbitration; when 
the haughtiest power cannot abuse its subjects, any more than a heart- 
■ less driver can the dumb brute, without having sucli protests and penal- 
ties imposed as Austria and Turkey have recently heard and heeded. 
The hour for Africa is when nations are not clamorous for territorial 



conquest, but rich enous;li to offer unlimited wealth for investment and 
for her development: and religious enough to give aid to those who will 
carry her the best schools and the most Bibles ; build the fewest confes- 
sionals; bind her conscience the least and exalt her social life the most. 
When the plans and impulses of Providence prompted the opening of 
North America — except a few scattered fishermen who came down from 
the north not to stay — tiiere were but two great nations that could 
take time from war at home to man expeditions and plant colonies in 
this new country. To day the entire world nearly looks through the 
oi)cn gates of Janus in the only one direction that remains to invite the 
explorer; and is eager to follow him. Ships have been stripped of lazy 
sail and filled with impatient steam. Monrovia is nearer New York than 
Pittahnrg was when your Society elected its first President. At thirty 
or forty dilTerent points ambitious parties are seeking entrance to the 
unknown secrets of Africa; and maybe we will hold our breath when 
they bring back full reports, by and by. They are clothed with peace; 
weaponed with implements of the best civilization ; aflame with the 
loftiest aspiration and devoted to the extension of that religion which, 
alone has a heaven-born right to reign. Theodolites and spades are 
ready to alter footpaths into railroads, on which engines will ultimate- 
ly each drag hundreds of tons where but a few stone- weight have been 
loaded on brutes and slaves' backs from the beginning. The desert of 
Sahara, from side to side, is soon to be seeded with the roses of industry 
which railroads are sure to sow. And the Niger is to cradle keels that 
will carry some such promise and potency for the Western side of the 
Continent, as the Nile did for the little nook of Egypt when it bore 
Moses in the basket of bulrushes. 

For this, prosperous France appropriates this year six millions of 
francs. Germany unites the purse of iier Parliament with the resources 
of lier geographical societies, and commissions six expeditions to go and 
sfe tiiis thing which has come to pass, and bring her word again. 
Though trembling under the burdens of taxation and weary with schem- 
ing, to sustain her standing as a solvent nation, Italy is unable to hold 
(•tf her hands from knocking for admission to Africa. Spain, never in- 
different to her neighbor beyond the narrows of Gibraltar, now wakes 
to unwonted energy ; and enters eagerly into the competition with others, 
if haply she may on the eastern side sieze the pearl of great price. Of 
all names that are taken up tenderly in our times none receives more rev- 
erent regard tlian that of David Livingstone ; the factory boy of Blantyre, 
who became for ever illustrious by hiding himself in the bosom of the 
dark continent — as a lamp in a lantern— thereby becoming its light, 
and as well making it luminous to all who look at it. 

The intrepid Stanley is as renowned as was a great warrior of old ; simp- 
ly because he has carried the torch of a Christian civilization, and the let- 
ters which spoil liberty further than any white man into the interior and 
up to Mtesa's Court ! Surely things sound as if the morning hour for 



Africa has struck. 

In this consort of nations, closing round her coasts, — their minds on 
her mines of precious ores; eyes on her elephants and ivory; snuffing 
her spice groves and peering into the mouths of her waters to see where 
her rivers of palm oil rise, what attitude and anxiety best becomes us 
as a nation? Not the same as is seemly for others. No other nation 
has, as we have, crushed and milled her sons into riches, as the caues of 
the sugar fields are worked. No other nation has been so ignorant and 
rapacious as ours in robbing this subject race of its blood, and rolling it 
up as the make weight of cotton bales, and chiefest wealth and sign of 
boasted social supremacy of the proudest section of the body politic. 
Therefore, by no rule of righteousness can we seek first the prizes of 
commerce which rightfully allure other lands. Or if we do, and do ob- 
tain them, I fear the curse of ill-gotten pain will accumulate as between 
us and these our ebony brothers of one blood. 

It is time for us to begin to serve Africa; to redress unutterable 
wrongs by " works meet for repentance." The eternal throne of justice 
may express its full satisfaction with African slave-holding America 
when we do more than God's compulsory Providence in war compelled 
us to do — cut the shackle and set the black man free. When we do 
more than put into the hands of benighted ignorance a ballot, to make 
the black man a voter in form, but a victim of all political villainy in 
fact. When we do even more than open public schools and university 
courses for his education. 

Story books, that we read in boyhood, had thrilling tales of Indians 
stealing children from families of white people on the frontier. The 
agonies of parental sufferings! how vividly they are painted! The pe- 
rils of the pure maiden as a prisoner in the wigwam of wicked men ; and 
the months and years of anguish that intervene before word is brought 
home how the lost child is, we can easily recall ! Suppose it were our 
child, and all we heard was that her captors had cut the cords from her 
wrists ; had agreed not to degrade her character any deeper by unspeak- 
able lawlessness ; and had opened a school in which her offspring of 
shame might see what they could do to recover themselves. 

Could our indignation acquit even an aboriginee who would con- 
sider this a decent travesty of justice' Give me back my child, is the 
choking cry of abused parental love. 

And if Africa is too far off for our ears to catch her cry: or if ignor- 
ance and oppression have so deadened her best sensibility that she has 
ceased to knoV how shamefully she has suffered in the robbery and 
commerce of her children, we believe heaven hears for her, and holds the 
book of account. 

And if so, our bounden duty is to undertake, more errnestly than 
ever for Africa both here and abroad, all enterprises that promise to re- 
dress her wrongs and to return her offspring, who may have a hunger 
for home, to tlie land of their fathers. Therefore it goes without say- 



1 

ing, that those imposing plans of the American Board to plant the agen 
cies and emblems of salvation at Bihe deserve the sympathy and suppli- 
cation of every American citizen. They go not for gain, but the good 
of souls, the glory of God and the illumination of the dark land. So 
does the Mendi Mission, which now, under our American Missionary 
Association, after thirty years of feeble success and fearful sacrifice of 
white missionaries, is setting nut to bring salvation to that part 
of Africa through the service of her own sons. 

But passing these and other agencies with only a word of benediction, 
we are now to consider, whether this African Colonization Society ought 
not still to have a share of sympathy and a swelling measure of substan- 
tial support in doing a part of this work. 

It ought; consideiing its patient continuance in well doing up to 
this present. At a meeting held in Park St. church, Boston, about a 
year ago, in the interests of your Society, Rev. Joseph Cook shocked the 
audience into intense attention by this opening sentence: "Liberia is 
bankrupt!" He instantly relieved our solicitude by saying; "These 
were the words of an opponent of African Colonization which I heard 
while coming down to the church." 

It was not our Boston orator who declared " Liberia is bankrupt." 
And it may not have been the best informed from whom he took his ora- 
torical fire-cracker. 

The outs, if they are of a critical mind, have every advi ntage over the 
ins that endeavor to promote an enterprise. Because it is so much eas- 
ier to criticise than to construct; easier to give reasons for refusing fav- 
or than to establish truth by argument and effort. 

Of those who have least faith in African Colonization and least fervor 
in forwarding your endeavors, it may not be uncharitable to guess, the 
lack is due largely to the same cause which, we read, gave God such 
grief in the days of the prophets; "Israel doth not know ; my people do 
not consider." But, remembering how much there is to know and do in 
our day, we need not feel aggrieved if all good men are not enlisted in 
every excellent movement. 

It does n<it disturb the faith we have in the temperance reform that 
some really pious people are imprudent enough to tipple. Nor ought 
it to influence any friend of African Colonization unfavorably to hear of 
ardent philanthropists who prefer another way of paying our debts. It 
weighs nothing against this Society's work, that we know, if even the de- 
based race, for wliose welfare it has so patiently worked, are not entire- 
ly enthusiastic in their praise of it. That signifies nothing; because their 
intelligence is not yet so broad and clear but that they are in dread of 
the very uncertain white man who from the time he first stole their fore- 
fathers and enslaved them has shown an ingenuity in mistreating men 
«)f their color. Neittier do any short comings of complete success in 
the free colony and Republic of Liberia settle the question against your 
eloquent appeal for enlarged support. Nations do not grow as Jonah's 



gourd — unless to wither as quick. It was 1821 before a permanent be- 
ginning of tlie Republic of Liberia was recorded. Since then only sixty 
years have passed. Sixty years with sixty wings on every minute of the 
time, and how swiftly the years do fly. 

Take account of any other nation that started on so desolate a site, 
on such stinted supplies, in the teeth of such hostilities, and see how 
much more any one of them achieved in their first sixty years. What 
was there to show on these shores within sixty years from the coming 
of Columbus? Or wait six years after the Spanish keel had cut a track 
across the sea. when the first English colony of 300, under Sabastian 
Cabot, arrived, and then count forward sixty years, and compare the re- 
sults with those of Liberia. Quite seventy years elapsed before there 
was so mucli as a permanent colony planted north of the gulf of Mexi- 
co. True the world was younger then than now, and equal progress 
could not be expected. But we may be more generous, and not 
begin to inquire of the American colonies for a full century after Cabot's 
company came. And yet starting thus, in 1598, we shall need to wait 
two weary centuries more before those colonies are seamed and cement- 
ed under a Constitution of States. 

So that if the short-comings of African Colonization were even more 
real than they are now imaginary, the propriety of supporting it does 
not deserve a snap judgment against it. 

When reading recently more carefully than before the significant 
facts of the Society's history, I paused at this; it was in the ship 
"Elizabeth " your first eighty immigrants were carried to Africa. We re- 
cal another Elizabeth who bore a forerunner of her race and the pioneer 
of a holy dispensation. Her child endured many a year of ascetic sac- 
rifice and severe labors in the wilderness of Judea merely to "prepare 
the way of the Lord." lie organized nothing. He established nothing. 
This son of the New Testament Elizabeth was satisfied if he might be 
but " the voice " of the better things to come. And if the results of 
the voyage of that Eliizabeth of yours, in all the years since she touched 
at Sherbro Island had been but to prepare the way of the people who 
are yet to follow, and to secure the blessings that Lilieria may yet be- 
stow on Africa, we ought to say of the Society; "Well done good and 
faithful servant ! " 

A second reason why the African Colonization Society ought to survive 
and be strengthened is, that better th;m any other it is now equipped 
to aid these restless sons of Africa to return home. 

With some it is a first question whether they are restless, and do ask 
to r turn, Tlie street says, ni). Statistics say, yes? And of the two, 
statistics miy bo taken as tlie in )ri; sober and reliable witness. But I 
have not met a more a 1 verse view of this work than comes from thos( 
who quote the street. They think the fundamental idea of the Society 
is fallacious: because the colored people do not desire aid to return and 
it is at variance with the truth to say they do! May I not safely make 



& 

this answer on your behalf? If they do not, then they need not. 

They are not to be coerced nor cheated into changing countries. 
Tills Society has no kidnappers roamiug the South. No cunning repre- 
sentations of yours are deceiving the colored population of the Carolinas. 
No oily-lipped agent in Florida or Louisiana, biinilar to those wlio serve 
the Cliinesc companies of California in As!;), or tlic ^lormon monstrosity 
in Northern Europe arc securing yuu emigrants. You do not flush the 
south with posters promising these poor people they will find Liberia the 
Eldorado where tiicy can pick up riches a? stones in the street. That is 
the way they used to draw emigrants from Ireland, — morc's the pity. But 
as far as the east is from tlie west is any measure of yours from that bold 
operating of modern mining companies, which capitalizes a shadow at 
millions, on paper, and puts the shares on the market at a sixpence. 
And so, it has but little appearance of undue influence, where I read in 
^'' Information cibout going to Liberia that each emigrant on his arrival is 
given only a town lot, or ten acres of land.'' For if lie remains in Amer- 
ica there are one huudrcd and sixty acres open to his occupancy. Wlieu 
it is asked: "How can I make a living in Africa;" the answer, as 
printed, is not particularly enticing to a peojile who arc naturally tired. 
It says : "In the same way that you would make one anywhere else ; that 
is by indiistry and economy." 

Tills is not even so inviting as the inducement which an Irish labor- 
er, lately landed in America, ollered to friends in the old country to fol- 
low him here. I have nothing to do, wrote he, but lug loads of brick to 
the top of the building, and another man does all the work. Emigrants 
to Liberia learn before leaving home that the sentence of Heaven stands 
in Africa as here: "In the sweat of thy face slialt thou eat 
bread." But notwithstanding the ignorance there is among the colored 
people of the opportunity presented to them to obtain an independence, 
a self-control, a social respect, and political influence, Avhicli for geufr- 
atlons to come but few of their race can reach by remaining in America; 
and notwithstanding the slight inducements that arc offered I hem in 
passage and in property, this conservative Society asserts, that of its 
know ledge there arc half a million of the people of color who are agi- 
tating the question of emigration to Liberia. If so it would seem befit- 
ting that this firs:; friend of Western Africa's civilization should be en- 
abled to aid this restless offspring of the early slaves. Except the Afri- 
can, there is no race represented in our heterogeneous population wdioso 
offspring might not be able without any outside aid to emigrate where- 
over they would — over all the earth, provided their fathers had used their 
opportunities and economized their profits. But it has been otherwiso 
with the African race. Of the millions of them who were slaves, not 
one has a son over eighteen years of age who was not born with the 
brand of bondage on his brow and a fetter on his foot, unfitting him to 
easily find his way beyond the base estate in which his ancestors liavo 
suffered for centuries. And it agrees with the best impulses and deep- 



io 

est principles of justice that we owe it to every son of tEose sires who 
lived and died in servitude, to put it within their power to go and 
take up a residence wherever they desire. 

Do some of them yearn for that, to them, most of all sacred state, the 
fat lands of Kansas? Then we would throw open every door, despite 
any specious argument which former owners urge against losing 
them from the cotton fields. And more, as Joseph put money 
into the bag of his brethren it would be but scant charity if ev- 
ery emigrant to that land should have given him as good a send off as 
you promise to those who start for Liberia. So, too our God speed 
would go with all who ask the way to South Africa, or to the rising-sun- 
side of their fatherland, '"with their faces thitherward." But multi- 
tudes are looking to Western Africa: and when it is inquired who is in a 
position to best promote their going there does not appear any ground to 
debate that you arc. Whether thinking of the wisdom of the illustrious 
men who have managed this Society — and before the array of their 
names the spirit of reverence spontaneously bows. — or whether we reck- 
on tlie superior advantages of climate and geography of your young Re- 
public or if we note the numerous pointings of Divine Providence 
w'hich prophecy a brilliant future for Liberia, it does look unreasonable 
and is due to some ignorance tliat all well wishers of colored people are 
not friends of African Colonization. 

And this leads me to the next reason why the Society ought to succeed . 
Third ; The American Republic owes it to her only child, the Republic in 
Africa, that she shall receive such supplies as will insure her stability 
and preserve her purity. 

We say things sound as if the morning hour for Africa has struck. 
But ther^are hours before the third. We do not forget that for a hun- 
dred and fifty years fearless and faithful followers of Christ, have been 
laboring to lift South Africa into the light of Christian civilization. lie 
reads little of the world's heroes who knows not George Schmidt, tlic 
pioneer of African missions; nor of that illustrious scholar, soldier and 
saint, Vandcrkemp, who gave his great heart and life for Kaffirs and 
Hottentots, nor yet of Robert Mofliat, whose glory-crowned grey-head 
was cynosure at the Mildmay Missionary Conference in 1879. ; and who 
owed the honors he received, and is to receive unto and after death to 
the unmatched services and sacrifices he has given to missions in South 
Africa. It is not forgotten that Cape Colony gives a brighter view of 
the continent than Victoria Nyauza, Bornu, or the upper Niger. That 
where George Schmidt planted his "handful of corn" mission near- 
ly two hundred thousand Christians have come to the Cross, and es- 
tablished the faith in South Africa. 

But none of the beginnings in that region belong to us. To Great 
Britain and the Dutch Boeis belong the Cape", the Orange River Free 
State : and the Transvaal Republic. And as posterity will hold them 
responsible for their good or evil influence over the poor natives, so it 



n 

must be with us up the coast, where we are trying the experiment of a 
Republic, built on a pattern received by us in the holy Mount Calvary. 
Liberia is far from home, and bard presfcd by heathen populations that 
would enthral her liberty by exhibiting to her ruling spirits the advantages 
of oppression. The child is separated by wide seas from this parental at- 
mosphere that has, as its vital element of intelligent enterprise and inde- 
pendence, the prayers tnd piety, traditions and tendencies which arise 
as a fountain under the Christian Church and circulate through all the 
channels of social, commercial, literary and political life. 

Remembering Liberia's proximity to populous and profoundly de- 
based neighborhoods, it is worthy of our wonder that her skirts haven ot 
been already bemired and her spirit bewitched — as Israel of old was 
wont to be by the encroaching heathen . 

To surely prevent this, under that propitious Providence which has 
watched all your ships sail safe from shore to shore, let picked emigrants 
from our schools and Universities, and the better classes of colored citizens 
go out ; in numbers corresponding at least with that constant inflow of 
country life which keeps our own cities supplied with their reviving ele- 
ment, and the young Republic will swell but never stagnate, and will 
age but not lose its youth. 

Its present population of three quarters of a million is not sufBcentto 
pierce the masses of moral corruption without becoming contaminated 
itself. And the best addition will be well bred brothers of their own blood 
who carry from home our highest and holiest ideas of education and re- 
ligion to repeatedly refresh their aspirations and piety. 

And as it is your aim to accomplish just this, I think the effort ought 
to succeed: and for a final fourth reason. 

To afford a reasonable argument why other attempts to save Af- 
rica ought to be aided. At the outset of this enterprise the end in view 
stopped with your good will to free people of color in this country. Now 
all are politically free: and the emphasis of your endeavor rests not on 
narrower but on broader grounds. Then it was for the benefit of some 
Africans. Now it is for all Africans and all Africa. But if Liberia is not 
made a success after what has been given to it of the head and heart of 
many of the purest philanthropists which this century has produced, what 
can be hoped for on the more hostile Eastern Coast, or at Mtcsa's court? 
Neither the East nor the interior offer greater facilities of approach ; nor 
a kindlier reception to the new comer. Their airs are not so salubrious, 
nor soil more prolific, nor population more promising subjects of Chris- 
tian civilizations. 

So that when Liberia shall come to disappoint the expectations of its 
founders and friends, the wisdom of expending life and treasure on any 
further attempt to dissipate the darkness from the Transvaal to the Al- 
bert Nyanza will be pointedly questioned by practical men. 

It is not because I have consented to say something on this occasion, 
that the claims of this work draw my warmest words of approval. I am 



12 

not subsklized to utter an endorsement, by a desire to receive your ap- 
proval, who have placed mc here. Any want of interest io me durinjj 
the past has been due to ignorance and misapprehension ; and to the fact, 
that only in the last few years have the claims of the dark continent and 
of the colored people pressed to the front of philanthropic questions. 

Even now no violent rapture sweeps me from the place of reason. 
No Utopian dream of drawing everybody into admiration of African 
Colonization fill my mind. But by as niuch as I gather together the 
facts of history, motives of action, and achievements of good which are 
already recorded of your attempt to plant a land of the free and a home 
for the black in Liberia, by so much does it appear impossible that 
divine Providence will allow you to want any good thing. 

Around the entire rim of that great continent beacons have been 
lighted and beginnings made. But no where is the light so prismatical- 
ly pure, containing so many of the colors that blend to make the white 
beam, as that which shines off tlic shores of Liberia. I would it were 
only by a flight of fancy, that I see there the one Strong-hold of our ho- 
ly religion ; and the one place where the son of man when He cometh 
will find faith on the earth. Naturally a more religious race than any; 
and so easily captivated by the name of Christ that colored people nev- 
er yield to anything so cordially as to the most Biblical religion, it may 
be that they in their own saved conntry may yet become the chiefest 
custodians of its sacroments, services and traditions. That if philosophi- 
zing Europe, and fashionable America, and idolatrous Asia shall ever 
have lost themselves in a turmoil of debate, in a whirl of imitations, or 
laid down in a lethargy of indifference — as Asia is fast doing, Africa 
may be holding fast the faith once delivered to the saints. 

A distinguished and venerable bishop of the A. M. E. Church was 
preaching in my hearing at Saratoga. His topic was; the trials and 
triumphs of Christianity. Selecting many striking examples in old 
Testament times where the powers of evil tried but failed to destroy the 
Cliurch of God, he came to the advent of Christ. Now, said the preach- 
er, Satan and his forces were fired with a fierce purpose; they would 
not be foiled in this attempt. This is the son, they said ; come let us 
kill him that the inheritance may be ours. 

And so all the aids of the adversary combined and engaged Ilcrod 
to kill the child Jesus. But when the Lord saw how strong they were, 
and He had no place of safety for his son outside of Egypt; lie just 
ordered .Joseph to take the young child and its mother and go down 
among the colored people: and stay until He brought him word again. 
"As it is written out of Egypt have I called my son." It had been known 
and written by inspiration long before it happened that there would 
come a time when the only safe place for the infant Christ would be 
down among the colored people. Is there any other Scripture in His 
mind, that reads; the time will come when the cause of Chirst will 
have no place of perfect acceptance and safety except in Africa, among 
the colored people? 



